How the hell did I become the pastor?

As strange as it seems, I just finished a three-year stint as ‘interim pastor’ for an Episcopal Church.  As a layperson, that shouldn’t have been allowed, and nobody was more surprised than me when the Bishop approved the experiment.  

The church, being in between priests, had been somewhat lay-led for years anyway since they had a series of very poor priests who provided little in the way of spiritual direction or strategy for a small, aging church to survive let alone thrive.  I had been a member and occasional worship leader there until one of those priests drove me away several years ago with his 16th century theology.  When he finally left, the church asked me if I would take his place.

I remember saying to the church leaders, 'I couldn’t be less qualified for this job. But that never stopped me before.'

Without going into great detail, after three years we increased membership dramatically, stabilized Sunday service attendance and when I left the church, we had almost 7 months expenses in reserve - during a pandemic.  I, frankly, believe this was my most satisfying project ever.  We proved a lay-led church could work.

The most difficult part of pastoring a Christian church, for me, was, however, staying true to what I actually believe.  While my adult life has been dedicated to following Jesus.  It hasn’t been dedicating to worshiping Jesus as God.  These are two different things. 

So, before I said yes to the offer I asked myself a series of questions:  would I be able to preach effectively without talking about the blood atonement (Jesus died for our sins)?  Could I get the power of the Jesus Way across without having to talk about miracles and orthodoxy that has developed over the centuries and become standard fare in Church?  Could I successfully convince people that the path to God was direct and didn’t need intermediaries for such things as reconciliation and confession?   In short, I asked, could I lead a church and not buy into all that 'the church' had created over the centuries about Jesus?  Would the congregation allow it?  (I wonder how many readers of this blog have asked themselves these same questions?)

My biggest issue and concern was whether I could accept this opportunity and still stay authentic.  After all,  I have spent almost 50 years on a spiritual journey and have landed where I finally feel good about what I believe and don’t believe.  I wasn’t going to go backwards.

That being said, however, I also believe(d) that other forms of worship and belief about Jesus and God were ok with me.  I really felt/feel someone’s spiritual life is their spiritual life and what the church has failed to do (note the number of people fleeing the pews) is make room for every form of belief under the same roof.  It seemed churches were either progressive or conservative (especially in the Episcopal Church).  Where was room for the church that truly practiced what it preached being open to all?  Could we have a church that had progressive old Kurt sitting in the same pew with very conservative old Frank? (Not his real name.)*

Somehow, as I look back, we did it.  We, in fact, did create a welcoming church, a church where Frank and Kurt could worship together.

How did we do it?  By implementing what we began to call ‘benefit of the doubt Christianity,’ as our way.  We said, ‘I give you the benefit of the doubt Frank/Kurt.  Because you are in this church which is a loving, welcoming place. Your idea of the Jesus story might be different than mine.  But it isn’t so different we can’t see common ground.’

To get to this point we first went through a pretty extensive discernment process about what we wanted to say we were as a church.  In other words, after weeks of discussion and drafting/crafting, we asked if we could come up with a statement that clearly defined and described who we are and definitively said to anyone crossing our threshold they would be welcome?  Could we actually describe a church where many understandings of the Jesus Way could find voice?

We found we could if we had a foundational theme to everything we did.  We began to ask the age old, corny, question

What would Jesus Do?

Yea, that corny question.  You remember that story, right?  It was from a book called In His Steps written by a Congregational minister in Kansas in the mid-nineteenth century.  In the book a fictional church decided to put ‘what would Jesus do’ to the test by asking that question individually and as a community for every question or issue faced.  WWJD eventually was picked up sometime in the 60’s I think and became kind of a rubber bracelet, sign at the football game, kind of thing.  It became kitschy quickly.

But we thought it through and said this isn’t kitschy.  It’s a way to live.  Could we do it as a church?

We found out we could.  And when we got right down to the answer of the question, the Simple Jesus Way just emerged as an authentic way for church community to live and be, and individual members of that church, to live and be.

I’m sure I wasn’t the one who invented this phrase, but I’m probably the only pastor of a church to revert to it exclusively when describing what I believed we were called to as followers of Jesus.  My story was as simple as those words:  if we strip away all the stuff the church, over the centuries, has made up about Jesus and what he was asking of us, we can get to a foundational understanding of how to live.  Stripping away included things like immaculate conceptions and walking on water.  And it included – you may want to stop reading after this one – that Jesus was God or the son of God.  We said, quite simply, if Jesus is God for you; great.  If Jesus is a great prophet for you; great.  If Jesus was a man and someone who’s life and teaching was worth following without having him born from immaculate conception or walking on water; great.  You are welcome at Christ Church.

And we were able to do that because we said all of those interpretations were authentic if the ultimate goal was to create a church that lived into the Simple Jesus Way.

We also created a simple foundational statement that explained it all.  Before every service I would welcome the congregation and speak these words:

We don’t care who you love, as long as you love.

We don’t care who you voted for, as long as you love.

We don’t care where you are on your spiritual journey, as long as you love.

If you love, if you seek to understand what Jesus is calling you to…welcome home.

When we voted as a congregation on this as our statement of faith, 100% of the congregation approved.

We had found a way to be Jesus followers to all people whether conservative, liberal, questioning, no questions…anybody.  Welcome home we said.

So, then, this is what I believe.  I believe that Jesus was the most divinely inspired person ever to live.  He showed us what life with God can look like.  I believe his life and his teaching is all we need to be good people who love others and care for others and serve others.  I believe the Sermon on the Mount is all we need to understand what that Jesus way of living is all about.  Nobody has to walk on water to live that way.  Hell, I can hardly walk around the block.

###

*   To achieve a welcoming atmosphere even in the theology of the church, my sermons focused on providing something useful that people could use or at least consider. I never made believe I had this extensive theological education that helped me really understand scripture.  In fact, the congregation used to laugh out loud when I would reference my Bachelor of Science in Physical Education.

For example, when speaking on Jesus feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14:15-21) I referenced the miracle, of course, and then asked a question:  'wouldn't it have been as much a miracle if the story really was the people shared their food with one another?'  I remember distinctly when delivering this message that I could literally see people saying - in their mind - 'wow;  never thought about that.'  After all, I said, they were away for a few days.  Some had to have brought food...what if they shared it?

This approach allowed me to speak about serving one another and offering a look at Jesus as social reformer.  It gave me a chance to say to people that reading scripture is a present-day exercise.  It still speaks to us if we really think about it and ponder its possible meanings - plural.

While I know some in the congregation also were not happy with 'deconstructing scripture,' I didn't get one complaint and got many 'never thought about thats...'